


Oh No, It's December Again.

by In2lalaland



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 19:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16939026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In2lalaland/pseuds/In2lalaland
Summary: Derek loves Christmas. Unfortunately he ended up with a Christmas hit song, that led to him being booked all the way leading up to Christmas. It really puts a damper on the most wonderful time of the year.Meanwhile Stiles is haunted by some Christmas pictures. How was he supposed to know that those nudes were going to end up printed on so many decorations? Being Mr December sucked.A story of dread, Christmas wonders and not being able to remember where you know that guy from.





	1. The End Of November

‘Oh no’, Derek thought in quiet horror. 'It's almost december, christmas is coming.’

Holding up the page with only a few squares left unmarked, he stared at the pinup calendar his sister had put up on his office wall. Mr December grinned a big happy smile at him with big dark eyes, his long elegant fingers were holding a wrapped box in front of his… package. Derek felt like the grin was mocking him.

Derek didn’t hate the holiday itself. In fact, he loved it beyond what was probably healthy. But with Christmas came the christmas music and that was where Derek's reluctance came in. Because every year, for the last ten years, people started calling to book him for various events because he had once made a Christmas song that somehow had become a classic. If Derek had known what that damned song was going to get him, he would have… well maybe not thrown it away but had someone else sing it.

He sighed and dropped the page, now looking at Mr November who was winking at him, wearing only a pair of camouflage hot pants and a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder.

While he was very aware of just how much money was riding on his christmas performances, Derek really wanted to skip them. He just wasn’t the type to stand on a stage with everyone’s eyes on him. He much preferred staying behind his mixertable, in the safety of his studio. Surely his studio was making enough money for them not to need that cash for a back up, right? Only, he knew that they should update some of the mixer tables that had some glitchy cables. Also, the sound booth needed some repairs. Last time one of his singers got “a feeling” they had ripped huge chunks of the acoustic foam out.

Damn it. He was going to have to do the concerts. Laura probably already had several bookings done and there was always some office christmas party that needed last minute entertainment. Also, this year was possibly going to be worse than ever.

Derek resisted the urge to hide under his desk. Leaving the safety of his office, he wandered into the studio’s newly renovated kitchen. It was a quiet day, no bookings and no rehearsals, so Derek enjoyed his solitude as long as it lasted. He made himself another cup of coffee, that was probably one too many that day and leaned back against the workbench, taking in the kitchen. He was really happy about how it had turned out. The cabinets had been falling apart, and the stove had been a fire waiting to happen at any moment. Nowadays, it was slick and modern with all the appliances they could possibly need. Derek kept it obsessively clean since it was much nicer than his own kitchen at home.

However, he had to admit that the new kitchen came with a sour taste, since the money for the renovation had come from selling the rights to use his hit song to Universal studios for their latest christmas RomCom.

It had seemed like a god idea at the time, but as the premier started closing in, Derek started having second thoughts about the whole thing. If the movie ended up being popular, then perhaps his song would be too? And then the bookings would be even worse… He may even have to play on big stages again, something that he still had nightmares about. Sometimes he really hated that song.

It had started so innocently, once upon a time, way before he had his own studio and power over his own schedule. It had been Christmas and for the first time in his life, Derek had not been able to go home for the holidays. He had been in St. Paul, Minnesota, at McNally Smith College of Music, working on his final project. Unfortunately, so was everyone else and all six studios had been been fully booked except for over the holidays. On the other hand, luckily enough all the artists he was going to record with were muslims or gay atheists who all just wanted to get the damned thing over with and didn’t necessarily celebrate Christmas.

Derek had written his song, sitting alone on Christmas morning in Minnesota, with some unopened gifts that had arrived in the mail from his parents. Feeling like an abandoned child, he had missed his family and was heartbroken to miss the sight of his niece and nephews tearing into their presents.

So he picked up his guitar and wrote a song about being surrounded by family and friends on christmas morning and the happiness he wished he was feeling in that moment.

He had sung it to them over skype later that day and that was meant to have been all there was to it. And perhaps it would have been, if not for his scheming sister who guilt tripped him into recording it, claiming her kids were too young to remember the song and would like to hear uncle Derek sing the Christmas Morning song again.

So he asked a couple of the musicians to stick around for a bit after the recording was done and instead of sitting in the control room, he had sat in the studio’s “livingroom” and played the song. It took just three tries to perfect it and then he had said thank you to the musicians, sent the file off to his sister and thought no more of it.

How naive he had been.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

 

“Oh no, it's december”, Stiles groaned unhappily at his phone. He wondered if he could get away with pulling his duvet over his head and staying in bed until January when everyone had gotten a new callender. He knew half the office had gotten their hands on a copy and they had been pretty much vibrating in their eagerness to flip the page over to Mr December. Stiles had tried to talk Denny into letting him fire everyone who had one, but had been ignored.

If he had known how that photoshoot was going to haunt him, he would have dragged his broke ass home to his father instead of taking his clothes off in front of a printed winter wonderland screen.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Take his clothes off, stick a santa hat on his head and get enough money to pay his rent and buy the latest WOW expansion. College Stiles had been a fucking idiot who thought no one wanted to see pictures of his naked ass in the middle of spring break.

The photographer had sold the picture to another company, and by the time Christmas came around, they had printed not only calendars, but also Christmas cards, posters and even christmas bulbs with various versions of his naked body spread out on fluffy fake snow.

That first Christmas, he must have gotten twenty Christmas cards from his friends and classmate with that damn picture on them. And one memorable one from his grandmother who luckily still hadn’t figured out that he did not in fact have a lookalike.

The only upside was that he only ever got recognized during the holidays. The down side was that Stiles had been twenty-one when those pictures had been taken, with the body of a young man who spent a lot of time playing lacrosse and going to the gym to burn off all the nervous energy his studies had brought on. It would be an understatement to say that he had been in a much better shape back then. Nowadays, he was thirty-two years old, with love handles and hair in places that were under no circumstances sexy. He spent most of his time behind a desk, working overtime trying to keep their little business afloat. He hadn’t seen the inside of a gym in months...

Over the years he had a couple of truly depressing hook ups where guys took him home, expecting to sleep with Naughty twenty-one year old Santa, only to find Office rat Stiles under his clothes. The following comments had not been flattering. The low point was then Hollywood.com ran one of those “You won't believe what this hottie looks like nowadays” with a picture of him looking like a rumbled homeless person right next to the most popular of his nudes, the one of him holding a gift in front of his crotch. The difference had been beyond horrible to see.

Pulling the cover over his head, Stiles called in sick. He was not going to be at work when everyone flipped the page of that calendar.


	2. The Beginning of December

Derek did a round, shaking hands with the new clients to seal the deal. He made sure to smile and give off an air of enthusiasm. He wasn’t terribly interested in making commercial jingles on such a short notice, but it was an easy way to make money and since a lot of people associated his voice with Christmas, it would be easy to write up a short melody, make a rhyme or two to make Jackson and Jackson sound like the best place to take your divorce after the holidays.

Derek had been accused of “Selling out” many times over the years since he first got his break through. But really, what does that even mean? Everyone had bills to pay and sometimes you had to make cheerful commercials for depressing things. That was life in the music industry.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, separating him from the lawyers office, Derek breathed a sigh of relief. He really wasn’t built for being the center of attention, it made him stressed and uncomfortable in a way he couldn’t explain. But he had done it and he had managed to close the deal.

Feeling proud he got his phone out, calling his sister who also doubled as his manager while hitting the entry level floor button with his elbow. He secretly hoped that the ride was going to cut the signal and save him, but of course he would not be so lucky. He loved his sister and considered her to be his best friend but around Christmas she turned into a right bitch from all the stress.

This year was worse than ever, but Derek quietly thought she had herself to blame. When Derek had first been contacted, several months ago by a studio, telling him they wanted to use his song in their movie productions, he had hesitated. Did he really want his song, a song about being happy together with your family, to be associated with some random action comedy? But in the end, Laura had talked him into it and Derek had gotten a nice 10 000 dollar check for it. That had gone a long way to renovate the Studios worn down kitchen.

But as the movie commercial had started showing, with his song running all the way through the trailer, the bookings had started to roll in fast and Laura was going mental.

“We got the deal.” He said, starting the conversation before she could. If he let her, she could talk for hours and had done so on several occasions.

“Great, more work but it will give us the downpayment we need to pay the band before the money for the gigs starts rolling in.”

Derek sighed at just the mentioning of having to get on stage. “Can’t I skip the whole thing this year, I’m really busy with my own projects.” He tried, knowing even as he said it that there was no point. Also, he hadn’t worked on his own material for weeks.

“You always have a project, you are not the only one who’s stressed out over this christmas nonsense on top of everything else that needs to be done for the holidays. I haven’t even had lunch yet! I’ve been stuck on the phone with the booking agency. There are so many offers, I’m going to have my ass full until Christmas morning because of your damned song.”

Derek just couldn’t help himself. “Oh yes, it’s christmas time again, so much joy is in the air. There is no need to feel down, you got all this love around.” Derek half sang, quoting the song in question.

“Fine, be a smart ass. I’ll email you the schedule without any input from you. Bye!”

“Laura!” He protested with a laugh but she had already hung up. Damn, he really should not have done that. She was going to book him to sing at malls. He hated singing in malls.

He called her back but got her voicemail right away. If that was how she was going to play it. So he sang his damned christmas song on the top of his lunges onto her voicemail because he was a mature adult.

He was getting so into it that he didn’t even notice the elevator slowing down until the doors of the elevator opened and a man stepped in. Suddenly embarrassed, Derek finished the last line and hung up, feeling more than a little silly for singing out loud, alone in a elevator.

He met the eyes of the somewhat scruffy looking man who stepped into the box. Or to be fair, it was more like he fell through the doors, almost dropping a laptop bag on Derek's foot as he tried not to lose his grip on all the tall pile of folders he had stacked in his arms almost all the way to his chin.

“Sorry! Oh! Hey man, long time no seen.” The guy said making Derek stiffen in surprise. The guy in front of him was somewhere in his thirties, cute in a sort of boyish way that Derek didn't usually go for, but damn did he look really familiar. He really should know who this guy was, he knew he had seen that smile before. But who the hell was he? Luckily for him, the guy had a “Hello my name is” nametag sticker on his shirt.

“Hey… Stiles. How are you?” Derek asked, trying to sound friendly. If he wasn’t, he was sure that the guy was going to turn out to be some friend of the family and before he knew it he would have his mother calling him about his attitude. He desperately searched his memory for the lanky young man but completely drew a blank. Maybe it was someone from College? Some musician? One of his sister's exes?

Unknowing of Derek's rising desperation, The guy babbled on, “Pretty good, keeping busy you know. The pre holiday madness is as usual completely crazy in the IT department. Every company suddenly realizes that they need to update their backups since there was going to be such a long break over the holidays and the last thing anyone wanted was to stay on over the holidays to fix some fuck up and they all want it at the same time. And then there are my favorites who decided that december is the perfect time to update their licences. So of course this is the perfect time to sign me up to some seminar to search out future clients. Because who needs sleep and a stress free environment really?”

“So how are you?” Stiles asked as if suddenly remembering that there needed to be two people involved for it to be a conversation.

“Stressed.” Was all Derek had time to say before the elevator dinged and the doors started to open. Salvation had arrived.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

There was a guy singing in the elevator. Stiles wished that was the strangest thing that had happened that day. He had enough trouble just holding onto all the damned folders he had been handled to care about someone singing Christmas Songs when december had barely just started. Stumbling into the lift his brain was sending out signals telling him ‘I know that guy’ and that was all Stiles had time to think before he opened his mouth.

“Oh! Hey man, long time no seen.” Stiles said before realizing that while he recognized the voice, he did not recognize the face. He was sure would have remembered a face like that. The guy was offensively handsome, but he had a rough look about him. He looked like the type of straight masculine Alpha male that Stiles always avoided like the plague because you never knew what they would do. The type who was nice and polite until he found out you were gay and then was anything but. Stiles managed some small talk but his panic grew, because obviously the guy knew his name but Stiles had no idea who he was. He knew his voice, though, that was very familiar. Perhaps they had been in some WOW raids or something?

He decided that he might as well just keep talking and keep up the smoke screen of hetrosexual masculinity.

The elevator finally reached the ground floor. “Listen, I’m in a bit of a rush.” He said as they both stepped out “Why don’t you give me you number and we can catch up later.” Stiles suggested, trying not to drop any of the folders in his arms.

He handed over his phone and Alpha Male dutifully did as asked.

An awkward goodbye later and Stiles was out the door, walking fast in the opposite direction of the guy. As soon as he was around the corner he fumbled for his phone, searching through his contacts until he found one he hadn’t seen before. Derek.

“Well, that’s not super helpful dude,” He grumbled, having hoped for more information than that.

Wrestling himself and the folders into the back of a cab, Stiles cursed this whole day. He hated all these kind of events. Personally, Stiles could think of a lot better ways to find the right type of clients without anyone even leaving their office and getting up from behind their computers. But this is how the world worked, or so he had been told.

But now instead of worrying how his presentation had gone and if he had managed to get any good deals, Stiles was stuck thinking about the Alpha Male in the elevator. Who the hell was that?

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Derek was in a really bad mood by the time he got home. He did not like feeling like an idiot, he had spent far too much time in his life, feeling out of the loop in many different ways. Hell, his last relationship had been one long torment of making him feel like he was the dumbest piece of shit in the world. He had worked hard to pick himself up after that and he did not enjoy being tossed right back into that feeling again. He spent the rest of the afternoon getting more and more annoyed with himself for not figuring it out. It was a evil spiral that sucked his mood down further and further.

When Laura called him again, later that evening he almost didn’t pick up. He had buried himself under a blanket on the couch and had been sluggishly listening to his second favorite christmas songs list, not wanting his bad mood to ruin his favourit list. Not that anything could ruin Mariah Carey, because she was a queen and when it came to Christmas songs, she was a goddess. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Santa claus is coming to town’ on the other hand was a perfectly acceptable song to be in a bad mood to. The live concert recording always completely ruined Derek’s sense of christmas. The phone rang again and Derek forced himself to pick it up, pulling the blanket over his head as he did so. Fittingly enough ‘Baby, It's Cold Outside’ started in the background. Another song that ruined his christmas feelings, even if it wasn’t really about a date rape. It had also been his ex’s favorite song. He should have known Kevin was an asshole right then.

“Hey Little brother, I finished up the schedule now, about ready to send it off to you. You still don’t do churches?” Laura’s cheerful voice grated his last nerve.

“Absolutely not, God can go fuck himself if he cares about who I fuck,” He snarled from under his blanket.

“Wow Derek, tell me how you really feel. You alright?”

Derek sighed, feeling almost close to tears just for the half hearted concern. “Laura, do you know a guy called Stiles?”

“Stiles? No, weird name, who is he?”

Derek grunted angrily. “You know when you run into someone and they know you but you have no idea who they are?”

“So you met a fan?” Laura asked, sounding only vaguely interested. One of her kids were screaming that something was unfair in the background and that horrible chihuahua his sister called her third child was barking up a storm.

Derek was suddenly very happy he was where he was, thankful that he was a gay man and wouldn’t get pregnant at 16 like his sister or knock someone up and end up in a dysfunctional relationship like his brother. “No, I know I’ve met him before but I got no idea where.”

“And this pisses you off?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. Tall skinny guy, dark hair, big eyes, long fingers.”

“Long fingers? That is a weirdly specific thing to remember. Is he hot?” She asked, seemingly ignorant that something was falling over with a crash somewhere on her side of the phone line.

Derek sighed, that was always her first question. She was one of those people who wanted everyone to be in a relationship just because she was. “Not really my type, more puppy cute then hot.”

“Was there chemistry?” Laura asked teasingly. “What am I saying, you wouldn’t notice it unless he was humping your leg.”

Derek snorted but didn’t protest. He was notoriously bad a realizing when he was being hit on. “He wasn’t my type anyway, built like a scarecrow about to fall over at any time. First thing he did was to almost run right into me in the elevator. Then he talked non stop the entire ride down, then forced me to give out my phone number and then he just ran off.”

There was a beat of a silence.

“So let me get this straight. You, Derek Patrick Hale, who has given a face to the meaning of ‘rude brush offs, did not cut off a guy you claim not to be attracted to and then you gave him your phone number. I bet you didn’t even give him a fake one either.” His silence must have said as much because she went on with a gleeful laugh. “I say bullshit! You liked him.”

Derek huffed. “No, I’m just annoyed that I don’t remember where I know him from. Also, we were in a elevator, it wasn’t like I could go anywhere.”

“Sure, that must be why you gave him your number. You liked him, don’t lie.”

Derek sighed and was just about to defend himself when there was another crash, followed by a high pitched cry.

“Damn, that was a real one.” Laura said with a sigh and hung up.

Derek suddenly felt a little better as he curled up under his blanket in his calm apartment. He even changed the playlist to his favorite one, letting Mariah’s tell him about all she wanted for Christmas.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

As soon as he got home, Stiles started searching the phone number he had been given but it didn’t give him any results.

He went on searching through every connection he could think of. He couldn’t remember having a Derek in school back in Beacon Hill, nor in any of his college classes, not any he could think of at least. He had a client named Derek Clark but they were not the same guy. He couldn’t remember any of his friends dating anyone named Derek and a quik search through his facebook friends did not solve the mystery.

The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he was and the more the mystery annoyed him. He had to figure out where he knew him from.

Maybe he had only spoken to him over the phone? Because the voice was so familiar but the face sure wasn’t.

There was only one thing to do. He picked up his phone and sent off a text message, asking Derek to meet up later that week. He was going to figure this out, if it was the last thing he did.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Derek woke up from a much needed nap to to a text message from Stiles asking if he wanted to meet up for lunch.

Derek never agreed to meet people he didn’t know, especially not for some random lunch where they had not agreed on what kind of relationship they were going for. The problem with Stiles was that Derek didn’t know how to treat him. Was a he friend? Acquaintance? Family friend? Someone he should avoid? It made Derek nervous and somewhat annoyed for not figuring it out. He sent back a text, accepting the invite and suggesting a cafe just down the street from the studio.

With a sigh, he rested his wrist over his eyes, holding his phone loosely between his fingers. What the hell was he doing?

Normally he would just block the number. But this was not a normal situation. The mystery identity of this guy was driving him mad. Who the hell was he?

With great reluctance he sent back an agreement. Then he changed the playlist back to his second favourite. He didn’t deserve Mariah, Brittny and Kylie right now. Better to settle with Springsteen and Band Aid and suffer under his blanket for being an idiot.


	3. December drags on

 

Derek showed up early as was usual with him. He always hated being the person standing around, searching for where the other was sitting in a cafe or restaurant. Kevin had always showed up extra early to make him feel late, even when he wasn’t.

And there he went again, thinking about his ex. This whole situation was really digging up things he was trying to bury and not think about.

Derek ordered himself a nice salad, indulging a bit with the dressing. He gave the chocolate fudge cake a longing look, before turning his back on it. He was starting to push the wrong side of thirty and the last thing he wanted was to put on any weight just before he was going to have to get up on a stage in front of a bunch of people. He even had his gym bag with him so he could go straight to the gym after this, something he had been forcing himself to do for months now. It was just another one of the many things he hated with the spectacle around the Christmas song.

A couple of minutes late, Stiles more or less tripped in thought the door. Derek reluctantly put his hand in the air to give him a little wave to show where he was sitting. Another thing Kevin had never done, he had probably enjoyed watching him stand around like an idiot searching for him.

Stiles at least seemed to appreciate the heads up, at least going by the happy grin as he made his way over. That smile really was very familiar and Derek desperately tried to kickstart his brain to remember why.

Derek found the mystery even more frustrating when the guy was so far from the type of person he liked to surround himself with. First of all, he was late and second, he was a mess. Stiles had leaves in his hair and mud on his shoes and pants, all the way up to his knees. The strap of his messenger bag got stuck to the collar of his jacket and when he tried to get it lose he ended up giving a unsuspecting elderly woman a smack on the ass with it. It earned him a nasty look that Stiles must not have seen as he was too busy trying to sit down in the most inelegant way possible.

Derek instinctively wanted to hide until Stiles went away, instead he greeted him politely. Thank god this wasn’t a date, he would have left already if it was, the guy was a disaster.

“I’ve never been in this part of town. You’ve been here before?” Stiles asked, finding a rumbled handkerchief in a pocket to wipe his dripping nose.

Derek nodded, forcing himself not to answer it like it was a yes or no question. “I work just down the street.”

“Yeah? What are you up to now days? You still doing your thing?”

Derek put the question to the list of things he knew about Stiles. The guy knew he made music so maybe they met through some kind of production? “Yeah, I have my own studio now. I produce mostly pop songs and advertising jingles nowadays,” he said, giving Stiles a close look to see how he reacted, if this was something he already knew or of they had met before that.

“That’s cool man, happy for you.” The grin was back, big and wide that made the crow feet by his eyes obvious. It was a nice, friendly face and it made Derek relax. Whoever Stiles was he was at least not a friend of Kevin’s who seemed to have surrounded himself with synical hardasses who never seemed to smile. “How about you?” He asked, hoping for more clues.

“Still living day and night with my computers.” Stiles confessed with a shameless smile. “The company has finally gotten off the ground so at least we don’t have to worry about that. Not that there's nothing to worry about, actually we probably have a lot more things to worry about now than we did before because now we have to make enough money to pay all our employees and let me tell you, nothing is as freaky as being the reason people is able to pay their bills.

He still haven't ordered anything, Derek noted as he listened to Stiles seemingly endless ramble. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Stiles and the situation he found himself. On one hand he just wanted to figure out who the guy was and let the whole thing go. But on the other hand, he was actually starting to enjoy listening to Stiles rambling on. It was nice to be a part of a conversation where he wasn’t asked for an opinion or questioned if he was listening. Stiles didn’t seem to need any input to keep going, and his anecdotes about the madness of the IT world was amusing and somewhat outrageous. Derek even found himself chuckling at a couple of retellings of clueless helpdesk conversations that was probably exaggerated but still funny.

His salad was long gone by the time Derek realized that they had been there for over an hour. Stiles was still going strong without having ordered and Derek waited for a break in the story to offer to get the both of them a cup of coffee. He still hadn’t found out where he knew him from but Derek was ok with that for now.

Stiles was just coming to an end with a story about a lost printer that had somehow ended up on the other side of the country when a phone rang.

Stiles sighed as he glanced down at it. “Sorry, got to take this.”

“Stilinski And Māhealani...Hi Mr Evans.” Derek looked up at the sound of the forced cheer in his voice, not having heard that from Stiles before.

“Yes, ok. We can fix that. If you open up a web reader.”

Derek figured this would take a while and got up to order two cups of coffee.

“Explorer or Chrome.” Stiles went on with a calm patient voice like he dealt with this kind if thing a lot. Derek held back a snicker as Stiles face went through a series of emotions ending up somewhere close to despair.

“The one that looks like a blue E at the bottom. Yes. Click on that… click twice on that… click again directly after the first time.”

Derek left Stiles with his forehead resting in his palm and walked across the room to get coffee. By the time he got back, the forehead was now resting against the edge of the table and as he sat back to listen to the one sided conversation he was very impressed by the level of patience Stiles was showing. He wished he had that much patience when his dad called him because he couldn’t figure out all the buttons on the tv remote.

“Nothing happened? You didn't see a little window come up at the bottom right corner? Ok… ok now click on Show Downloads up in the right corner. What does it say? Okay…” Stiles breathed out slowly. “No the X closes the window down, click on the blue E again.”

Derek was sitting across the table but he could still hear the man’s angry responds to that instruction from the other side of the line.

Stiles groaned unhappily, putting his phone back in his pocket. “I’ve got to go. That was the head of IT for one of the companies that employs us.”

“Head of IT?” Derek questioned. He didn’t know much about computers but it did seem odd that he would know more about it then the head of IT.

“Yeah, I wish I was kidding but I’m not. He’s also prone to trying to move cables around so I have to hurry before he goes into the server room and rearranges something in there. Hey, how about we grab some dinner later this week, does friday work for you?” Stiles asked, saying everything in one long breath as he was getting to his feet and wrestling his jacket back on.  
“Sure.” Derek said before he realized what he was saying. What the hell, he did not really want to spend any more time with this random guy and he sure had better things to do on Friday….

They decided to meet up again on the following Friday.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Stilinski. Finally, Derek at least had a last name after their weird lunch.

When googling Stiles Stilinski, there were several hits. Most of them were about the IT company that he co-owned and some articles he had written for a computer magazine. Other then that, there was not a lot to be found about Stiles Stilinski. He had an old Myspace page that he hadn’t updated in years and his facebook was locked.

Derek couldn’t even send a friend request since he didn’t have a facebook page of his own. Or more exactly, he had taken it down when his song had become popular. Now he wished he hadn’t because it would have made this mystery a lot easier to figure out if he could see what friends they had in common.

A search for Stilinski led him to a Sheriff Stilinski who had been quoted a couple of times in their local newspaper somewhere in California. His parents used to have a summer house somewhere close to there before he was born but it had burned down. Derek had never been there but he had heard stories about how nice it had been.

That old feeling of unease and doubt was crawling back. Why couldn’t he remember who he was? Was he such a idiot that he couldn’t even remember people he talked to? Maybe he really was too stupid to function like Kevin used to say? The whole thing was making Derek anxious and he could feel himself spiraling. He really needed to put the whole thing behind him before he ended up depressed just before Christmas. But if Stiles really had some connection to his family, he was going to have to tread carefully. The last thing he wanted was to piss off his mother, she would never forgive him if she felt he embarrassed the family in front of friends.

This was stressing him out.

But at least now he knew some more things about Stiles Stilinski so it wouldn’t be obvious that he had no idea who he was.

He knew he was from a small town in California that had wage connections to his family, he knew his father’s name was John who was a sheriff. It was more than he had known yesterday. Maybe he would figure it all out on friday so that he could stop feeling like an idiot.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Friday came and Stiles made his way over towards Derek who was waving him over like he was a damned waiter. Stiles found this more than a little annoying. At least Derek hadn’t shown any signs of that usual macho dude bro attitude that always came with his type of guys. Even if he was flashing his gym bag again, just like last time. It was like he had to tell the world that he was working out. Like that needed to be announced, the body kind of said it all. Stiles really disliked the gym rat stereotype and there were a lot of them in the gay community in New York. They were all so fixated by their own looks that it drove Stiles mental whenever he interacted with any of them. It was just too bad that they seemed to flock to him whenever he ended up at a gay bar or club.

Stiles knew what he looked like but just because he was a bit on the twinky side did not mean that he was into big beefy dudes. They actually kind of gave him the creeps.

Derek might be handsome but he sure didn’t want to date him.

“Hey man,” he said as he sank down in the chair on the other side of the table. “How have you been?” There, casual question that might actually give him some leads.

“Stressed,” Derek sighed. “Laura finished the performance schedule for the holiday and I've been rushing to finish all my other projects so I won't have that hanging over my head.”

“So it will be nothing but Christmas songs for you,” Stiles smiles sympatically. The stores had been playing nothing but since the end of November and he could only guess that as a musician, Derek wouldn’t be requested to play much else around this time. Poor guy, Christmas songs were the worst.

Derek huffed a laugh. “You know it. Like anyone wants to hear me play anything else.”

Stiles snorted. “It's a crazy holiday, that's for sure. I've never been much for it. Even as a kid. I wanted the presents but the rest I could do without.”

Derek made a soft noise, sounding like he didn’t agree with him.

“What? You one of those Christmas people?”

Derek shrugged, looking almost embarrassed beforea happy smile broke out. “Guilty.”

Stiles bit back a sigh. He had never really understood why everyone was so crazy about christmas.

His mother had always made christmas morning a big deal but two to three days later she would have packed away any sign of the holiday. Never one for knick knacks his mom. Looking back he was pretty sure that it had been a sign of his mother's obsessive compulsive behaviour.

His father mostly seemed to find the whole thing to be a necessary evil. He wasn’t much for traditions in general and if he had any opinion on religion he sure had never heard him express any of it.

Derek didn’t look like the type of person who decorated threes and baked cookies. It was a great relief that Stiles didn’t want to date him, because being together with a Christmas person would be so horrible. But he had to admit that the toothy smile was really adorable and made you want to hug him and pet his hair. And he would look cute in a santa hat.

“So what’s so great about it?” He asked, surprising himself that he actually wanted to know.

Derek shone up, offering a big smile. “It’s the whole thing really. Just the build up towards the holiday and the feeling of family, traditions and comfort. Like, it could just be any day but when you put it all together it turns into something that has a life of its own.”

For such an intimidating guy, Derek was all kinds of adorable when he got going on something he enjoyed. Stiles listened as Derek went on and on about what he liked about the season, finding that when Derek talked about it, Christmas didn’t sound that bad at all.

“You don’t get that feeling?” Derek questioned, taking a large sip of his glas like he needed it. The guy had probably not talked that much in ages.

“Nah, but it’s mostly just two of us on Christmas, so it’s not like we have a huge celebration to look forward to.”

Derek nodded in understanding. “How’s your dad, by the way?”

“He’s good, same as always.”

“Not much happening in a small town?”

“Hardly ever but that’s the way I like it.”

They went on to talk about Beacon Hill and Derek talked about growing up in New York. From there the conversation strayed on towards their favourite places in the city and how much they hated tourists.

Stiles was usually so nervous around good looking guys but that didn't happen with Derek. First of all, he was pretty distracted trying to figure out just who this guy was and second of all, Derek was so not his type.

Aggressively straight was kind of the opposite of his type actually. He preferred the more sensitive guys, the guys who were so gay there was practically falling fairy dust from them when they walked.

Wait.

What had he just seen? Had Derek checked out their waiter when he passed their table? Could it be?

Stiles took a moment and really looked at Derek. He was dressed casually, but well. His facial hair was rough but it seemed to be done on purpose.

Holy Shit. Stiles was getting The Vibe from Derek. Oh god, Derek totally swung his way. That had definitely been a Look he had given the waiter. He was not actually a Straight because the vibe was strong with this one.

Stiles gave the waiter a closer look as he passed their table again on the way back towards the kitchen. Yeah, he could see what caught his attention. This guy was so ripped, he made Derek look tiny in comperesing. From the way Derek was practically drooling over the biceps, he was in to the kind of thing. Right, so gay but not into Stiles or his sort, that was good to know. It would have been awkward if Derek had wanted to date him and he would have to tell him he wasn’t into muscle dudes.

Derek didn’t seem to be a bad guy, just not his type.

“You’re gay right?” Stiles asked, just to make sure.

Derek blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah?” He said like that should have been obvious. Stiles was a little insulted, it wasn’t like the guy walked around with any pride flags. But now that he thought about it, most straight guys probably wasn’t that fanatic about how badly dressed the tourists were.

This could actually be a really good thing. Stiles could use more gay friends in his life. He only really had Danny and a handful of exes that he saw very rarely. It would be great to have one that hadn’t known him when he was a ugly duckling teenager or had seen him naked.

“Hey, you want to go to Joe’s bar with me this weekend?” He asked on a impulse. It was ages since he had been to a gay club.

“For a date?” Derek asked, startling him.

“Yes” Stiles replied. Then panicked because no, he had not meant for it to be a date.

Derek looked a little surprised as well. “Friday, okay?”

Oh no, this was bad. “Great.” This was so far from great he wanted to slam his head into a wall. “I'll text you.” What the hell was going on?!

Holy fucking Shit Batman, what did he just do?

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

“Looking forward to it,” Derek mumbled to himself as he walked towards home, wondering just how this had happened. He was going to say no! He was going to do his usual ‘I don’t date’ but for some reason he hadn't be able to do it.

“Looking forward to it,” Derek groaned again in despair. What did he just do?


	4. December madness

Stiles usual hated firsts dates. The way it usually went was that he got nervous and talked so much that he scared his date off.

This so called date with Derek on the other hand was going pretty good if only for the reason that he didn’t really want to date him anyway and therefore didn’t really care what kind of impression he gave.

Derek was not much of a talker and Stiles had to force himself to not fill the silence with empty chatter. There was still the whole mystery of where he knew him from to solve, he had not forgotten about that even with this unexpected turn. He had to push a bit to get Derek talking as he obviously wasn’t much for chattering. But slowly as their accidental date went on, Derek started to open up.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Derek was… actually having a nice time at his reluctant date.

He had planned on letting Stiles know it wasn’t working out for him and no hard feeling, it’s me not you, and all that. But then Stiles had said that Mariah Carey was overrated since she hadn’t had any hits since 2009.

Derek had then gone completely off the rail because really, the disrespect to the queen.

“Lady Gaga has gone beyond what Mariah has managed to accomplish in half the time.” Stiles had the nerve to claim.

Derek made a angry noise behind his closed lips. “They are completely different singers with completely different styles! You can’t compare Mariah with Gaga, it doesn’t work that way.”

“Mariah Carey has like that song, Jenny From The Block and her Christmas cover, that’s all the songs that anyone knows.” He made a dismissive gesture that made Derek see red.

“Christmas cover?! It’s not a cover! She wrote it for her christmas album in 94!”

Stiles shock his head in despair. “Why would you even know that, it’s not that great of a song.”

Derek just about threw his drink in his face. “It’s a fucking masterpiece! It’s the best Christmas song there ever was!”

Stiles snorted. “Best song? You have got to be kidding me.”

“Oh yeah, what do you consider to be a good Christmas song.”

Stiles stopped and thought far too long for such an obvious question. Who didn’t know what songs were a good christmas song?!

“I like that Blink 182 Christmas song, where he sings about attacking Santa’s helpers with a baseball bat and ending up having sex with some guy names Buba in a jail cell.”

For a second Derek was so upset he could barely breathe. “Are you fucking with me?!”

“Nooo, I’m just saying. It’s a great illustration of the Christmas frustration. Mariah Carey could never get even close to that kind of visual.”

Derek just about got to his feet in outrage when he saw the teasing smile that Stiles couldn’t hide.

“Fucker,” he grumbled, making Stiles throw his head back and laugh.

“I couldn’t help myself, the look on your face!” The other man cackled.

“You are the worst.”

“I’m sorry.” Stiles took a deep breath, seeming to fight a new round of laughter down. “I agree alright. Mariah got the best Christmas song. But Gaga’s is pretty good too, it just hasn’t had the time to really soak into the traditions.”

Derek was glad he had ordered in water because his throat was all dry from the outrage. “I don’t know, it’s just not as catchy. But I’m a bit traditional. I love the old ones, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin.”

“I’m kind of seeing a pattern here.” Stiles teased with grin from behind his wine glass. “Do I sense Derek’s type?”

Derek shrugged. “I might have developed a bit of a preference that is a bit old fashioned. I used to have such a ridiculously huge crush on Nat King Cole when I was a kid, hell I still go a little weak in the knees when I hear him sing.”

Stiles hummed his agreement. “I don’t blame you, that man was fine.”

“They don’t do them like that anymore.” Derek sighed, trying and failing not to think about his ex who at a first glance had seemed like such an elegant gentleman but turned out to be anything but.

“True that. Too many fuck boys ignoring their own daddy issues.”

Derek snorted. “You can say that again.”

“Don’t even get me started on Grindr, that hell hole is made to rot the soul.”

Derek felt his heart do a little skip as he listened to Stiles complain about emotional abusing yourself with one night stands and the lack of good gay bars to actually meet people the old fashion way.

It was almost too bad that Stiles wasn’t his type. Because he sounded like something he needed in his life.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Derek sighed as he joined the rest of his band in setting up for the set. Laura had clearly been annoyed with him when she made this booking because they were in a mall filled with stressed people who mostly seemed to think their stage was in the way of their very important shopping.

He can’t believe this was the show that Stiles was going to see him perform at for the first time. In a damned mall.

At least the band was all here. Most of them were friends from college and the rest he had met though the studio work they had done together. What they all had in common was that they were all out and proud gays. Boyd, Isaak, Erica and the rest were all regular studio musicians who, compared to Derek, didn’t mind being dragged out of the studio for a change. They had all been playing together for about ten years now so they had the whole thing down to an artform by now.

Isaak had been the one who wanted to name the band The Christmas Fairies but both Derek and Boyd had put a veto on that idea. Unfortunately, Isaak was the one who had the employees discount at the printing company so Christmas Fairies it was.

As they did a quick sound check, Derek took his place at the front of the stage. The upside with a mall show was that there was not that many lights in his face, stopping him from checking out the audience. It didn’t take him long to find Stiles with all the waving and the jumping from the front of the stage like he was a damned groupy at a pop concert. Giving him a genuine smile, Derek turned to face to the sparsely crowded floor.

“Hey everyone, we are Derek and the Christmas Fairies. I hope you are all enjoying yourself and not worrying too much about everything you want to get done. We are here to get you in the mood and remind you that there is more to Christmas than presents and stress.” Derek said with a practiced smile. All his lines on stage had been written by Laura who knew what he wanted to say and how to say it. Derek himself was horrible at trying to find any words at all, especially when he was nervous or uncomfortable.

As he hit the first accord on his guitar, he took a deep breath and steeled himself.

They started up with a cover just to warm them up. A classic “Jingle Bells” usually worked to get people in the mood. He sang it a little bit more like Jim Reeves than Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's version was better, but he just didn’t have the voice to carry that kind of self confident swagger. The first time he had tried it on stage he had woken up the next morning in cold sweat, having dreamed about how Frank Sinatra had been in the audience and had hated his performance. Derek spent far too many nights dreaming of his idoles.

The almost empty venue was slowly turning into a crowd as people were starting to flock in front of the stage now. Several excited kids were gathering in the front, staring up in wonder at the band and sang along in ‘oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh’ even if some were singing ‘one ho open lay’ if he heard them right.

He followed up with one of his own Christmas songs. ‘Awaiting Light’ was never really a big hit but it sometimes got played on radio, so he could see some people in the crowd nodding along in recognition. Derek gave it his all, putting away his own discomfort to give people a good show. He wasn’t not made to be standing on a stage and letting people look at him but he could fake it. Knowing that Stiles was in the crowd helped a lot and he felt a lot more relaxed about his performance then he usually did.

He ignored someone calling out ‘Christmas morning!’, and started playing Jingle Bell Rock. That would put people in a good mood. The band also loved it and he could see Isaac really skipping around with his guitar, playing up the energy while Erica was encouraging the growing herd of children to sing along.

In the far back he could see some couples dancing and that if anything made him glad, that the music could make people so happy that they started dancing in the middle of a mall. He dared to glance over at Stiles who was beaming up at him.

Then it was time for the big guns. Usually, it was enough to play the intro for people to recognize it and this time is no different. He can almost feel people perking up, even the people in the far back who had seemed to be half a second away from walking away.

Derek is pretty proud of his song, it’s about his family and his own love for them and the season. But in a way, it confused him just how big of a reaction it got from people.

He had written another five christmas song, or more like forced himself to write another five christmas songs just so that he could have a full set list  
filler. But ‘Christmas Morning’ was by far his favourite and as much as he disliked the attention, he could not deny how pleased he was when he looked over the sea of happy faces enjoying his music.

He played another couple of his songs and a couple of covers but it was as usual obvious that people had already gotten what they wanted. He had a up beat version of Christmas Morning prepared if the crowd wanted an encore but it seemed like people were starting to wander off so they finished up with an energized Rocking Around The Christmas Tree. Everyone loved that one. It was happy and left people in a good mood.

As they wrapped up the show he dared to look back over at Stiles, surprised to see that he was no longer smiling. In fact he looked like he had seen a ghost. Derek hoped it wasn’t something he had done, he was actually looking forward to seeing Stiles, something that was rare for him and he didn’t want to upset him in any way.

He thanked the leaving crowd for listening and the applauds before hurrying to leave the stage. He needed to talk to Stiles to find out what was wrong.

He didn’t get far as his sister got in his way, forcing him back towards the stage. “We need to take a picture first, stand still and Derek, at least try to smile.” Derek sighed impatiently but did as he was told as his sister pushed the band all together and held her phone up sideways to take a picture of all of them. It took a second for Derek to understand what he is seeing. Laura has a new phone case and for some reason, Stiles was on it. Naked. Very naked. Asides from the Santa hat on his head and the large candy cane he got between his legs like a hobby horse.

“What?” He gaped in confusion.

“Smile Derek! It’s a pretty easy instruction!” His sister complained with a frown.

Derek’s responded by marching over and snatching the phone out of her hand. He stared down at what is unmistakably Stiles Stilinski.

“Nice huh?” Laura gooed. “He’s my favorite, it’s the same one that’s on your wall.”

“What?” Derek questioned, feeling like that was the only word existing in his head.

“You know? The calendar I bought you? The one with all the sexy guys? That’s Mr December or as I would like to call him, Mr Naughty December. Just look at that grin, you know what I mean?”

Derek is looking at the grin. The one that he was so sure he remembered so well and suddenly knew why. Stiles was a god damned model! Not a old classmate. Not a family friend. A model in a calendar.

Derek didn’t know how to feel.

What the hell was he going to tell Stiles?

Ignoring Laura's protests, he stole the phone cover and walked off the stage towards where he had last seen Stiles.

Stiles looked a bit spooked, or perhaps like someone was about to hit him in the face with a pan and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. “So I have a confession to make,” he started before Derek even had the chance to figure out what to say. “When we first met I had no idea who you were and looking back I think it was the singing you did in the elevator that kind of tricked me into thinking I knew you but apparently, I don’t.” The look on Stiles face was horribly close to heartbroken and Derek didn’t like it at all.

Suddenly finding the right thing to say was very easy.

“Ditto,” he said, holding up the phone cover in front of Stiles face that changed expresion so fast it was hard to follow. Shock, shame and despair rolled by to finally settled for a mirror image of the teasing grin from the picture.

“My my, someone has been caught owning dirty pictures Mr…” Stiles teasing trailed off. “So apparently I still don’t know you last name.”

“It’s Hale. Derek Hale, and you might know me from that one popular Christmas song.” He held out his hand as if to say hello for the first time.

Siles laughed and took it in a businesslike handshake. “Stiles Stilinski, you might know me from a wide array of trashy Christmas decorations and apparently phone cases.”

They shared a somewhat hysterical laugh that fell just a little bit short of actual humor. Then they stood in front of each other, still holding on to each other’s hand in a way that was anything but businesslike.

“So to round this whole thing up, we don’t really know each other at all.” Stiles said with a tight smile, not meeting his eyes as he stared down at their interlocked hands.

Derek looked at the man in front of him and couldn’t agree. Because while they might not have known each other for very long, he knew quite a lot about this odd man and found that he liked what he knew. In away the whole thing had been a blessing because he knew that had he seen Stiles in a dating app or met him in a bar, he would not even have paused. But there was more to Stiles than what met the eye and if he was honest with himself, he wanted to know more. He had spent so much time desperately trying to find out everything he could about his mystery in a way he had never done before with anyone he had ever met. In turn, he had opened up to a stranger where he normally pushed people away. He had told Stiles things he never talked to anyone about and he knew things about Stiles that he would never even thing to ask his friends about. They did know each other, just not the way they had imagined.

“No, I wouldn’t say that,” He said, finally meeting hopeful eyes. “I think we know each other just fine.”

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Epilogue

Derek was in a dilemma that was stressing him out. Britney Spears wanted to sing a duet with him. For some reason she was wearing that hot pants and green top she wore at the V.M.A awards, complete with python hanging over her shoulders and everything. To sing with the princesses of pop on ‘My Only Wish This Year’ was pretty much his deepest darkest secret because Britney was amazing and he worshiped the ground she walked on. But Stiles was in the audience and Derek didn't want him to think he loved her more then him. Even if it was Britney in all her pop princess glory. He was working himself up quite badly when he suddenly woke up in great confusion to Britney singing in his ear from his vibrating cell phone.

“That was weird.” He complained, as he reached for his phone, cutting of Britney asking if Santa heard her.

“What?” He asked rudely, not even checking who it was. He already knew.

“You still in bed?” Stiles amused voice reached him.

Derek just grunted in reply.

“I thought you were going to be all up and at them the day before Christmas.”

“Well some of us had three shows yeasterday and needed a sleep in.”

“You better be up when I come by or I’m going to your parents alone. I got that matching set of those Christmas bulbs with my nudes for your mom that she wanted so she will totally love me more.”

Derek groaned in despair. “You didn’t. She already had two of them, why would you buy her more?” Stiles and his mother had gotten a long like a house on fire. Not only was their sense of humor just the same, they both loved trolling each other.

“Well I’m not the one who took your boyfriend of less the a week to meet your parents and then happily announced why your mother found my face so familiar in the middle of dinner.”

Derek just grunted in his defence. It might not have been his brightest moment, he was just happy he was not the only one it had happened to.

“Get your ass up and be ready to be picked up and I’ll let you play all the versions you can find of ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ on the way.”

“Deal, going now.” He hung up, only to turn his phone around to give his new case a kiss. Because as much as Stiles had started out as the opposite of his type, Derek was really growing to enjoy his spass of a boyfriend. The lack of pumped up body barely crossed his mind anymore and from what he could understand, Stiles was getting over what he was calling his ‘bro-phobia’, whatever that meant. Some things were just in your head until you were suddenly faced with how insignificant those hang ups really were.

Happily whistling his Christmas Morning song, Derek got ready for the most wonderful time of the year.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-The End-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading and please leave me a word or two before you go. If nothing else then as sympathy for writing this with Christmas music in my ears since the beginning of October. I've been singing "It's beginning to look a lot like christmas" Every. Day. For. Over. Two. Months.
> 
> And last of all. A huge Thank You to Emisfritish for beta reading this so fast and well. You are the best. I would have been lost without you.


End file.
